Unleash Your Inner Superhero

You are in possession of something powerful. Something with the innate possibility to change the world. You walk around with it every day, but sadly, you're likely oblivious to its paradigm-shifting potential. Don't feel bad, however, for even the most advanced airport security scanners are completely unable to detect its presence.

What is it?

Your greatness.

That's right, even Tony the Tiger would agree: You're GREAT! But I'm not talking in generic, "you're great, I'm great, everybody's great and should get a trophy" terms here. I'm talking about your inner superpower.

The tragedy is that this inner superpower is often under-appreciated and under-used, rendering it nearly powerless.

Your greatness is made up of the activities you are great at and most enjoy doing. The things that people marvel at, ask you to do, and thank you for. The things that come easy to you, the things you find most enjoyable.

The "easy" and "enjoyable" aspects are the trap. They lead you to take your greatness for granted. When something comes easy to us, we assume it must be that way for everyone, so we don't see anything special in it. And if it's enjoyable, we assume it's not worth that much because anything worth having requires a lot of work, right?

Wrong!

This kind of thinking is Kryptonite to our inner superpower. The truth is, the things that come easy to us and create enjoyment are the very gifts we were given to help change the world. Rather than toiling away at building up our weaknesses, we need to unleash our infinite potential by focusing on our strengths. If you think about it, building up our weaknesses is our futile way of becoming self-reliant. But we were designed to be dependent on one another. Our job is to utilize the gifts of others while ruthlessly sharing our own.

Write down a list of at least 10 things you are great at (shoot for 20!) Then make a similar list of things you enjoy doing. Compare the lists and circle the things that overlap.

That's your greatness. That's your inner superpower.

Keep in mind, you don't need to be the best in the world at any of those things to be great. The beauty is in the mix. Consider this quote from Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams:

I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The "Dilbert" comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That's how value is created.

You may not be the absolute best at any one thing on your list. (Not many people are.) But that's no reason to discount them. Chances are that if everyone in the world compared their lists of 20 things they are great at and enjoyed doing, no two lists would be exactly the same.

I hope you will take some time to make your own list to uncover and analyze your inner superpower.

Jason Kotecki is an artist, author, and professional speaker. Jason and his wife Kim (a former kindergarten teacher) make it their mission in life to fight Adultitis and help people use strategies from childhood to design lives with less stress and more fun. Stop by www.KimandJason.com for more tips for escaping adulthood.

I like the message of your post and agree there’s so much potential and talent within all of us. With the Avengers movie setting records and our world in need of our talents…your message is also timely. A couple years ago at my career center, I took a Strengthfinders class…partly based on Tom Rath’s Strengthsfinders 2.0 book. While it is probably not necessary to buy the book in order to figure these strengths out, it helped me articulate these better. Wishing luck to you, Lance and the readers of J.O.L. in figuring out and using these strengths.Tim´s Last Fabulous Post ..Twitter, The New Business Card?

Thanks Tim! Funny, I didn’t even think of the Avengers tie-in. I wonder if the fact that these superhero movies are so popular is an indicator of how starved we are to see real greatness…Jason of Kim & Jason´s Last Fabulous Post ..The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

“That’s right, even Tony the Tiger would agree: You’re GREAT! ” I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read that… thanks for the smile Jason!

You’re absolutely right, there’s a superhero in us all. I think if people took a look at the books and stuff in their bookshelf, it’d give a glimpse at the superpowers they already have, wish to have, or are working on. Just a thought.

Determine what your personal strengths are. Maybe you’re a good swimmer or good at cleaning. Figure out what you excel at and build on those qualities. You’ll like yourself more, and people will believe you’re sincere.

This information is very informational! I do agree with you about our inner strenght. Since most of us never even thinks the things that we can do. It is just a matter of thinking positive and doing things that we never even expect that we can do.chanikacha´s Last Fabulous Post ..herbal treatment for adhd